"How many centuries does a mind require to be understood ?"--that is also a standard, one also makes a gradation of rank and an etiquette therewith, such as is necessary for mind and for star.
286.

"Here is the prospect free, the mind exalted." [FOOTNOTE: Goethe's "Faust," Part II, Act V.The words of Dr.Marianus.]--But there is a reverse kind of man, who is also upon a height, and has also a free prospect--but looks DOWNWARDS.
287.

What is noble?
What does the word "noble" still mean for us nowadays?
How does the noble man betray himself, how is he recognized under this heavy overcast sky of the commencing plebeianism, by which everything is rendered opaque and leaden ?--It is not his actions which establish his claim--actions are always ambiguous, always inscrutable; neither is it his "works." One finds nowadays among artists and scholars plenty of those who betray by their works that a profound longing for nobleness impels them; but this very NEED of nobleness is radically different from the needs of the noble soul itself, and is in fact the eloquent and dangerous sign of the lack thereof.

It is not the works, but the BELIEF which is here decisive and determines the order of rank--to employ once more an old religious formula with a new and deeper meaning--it is some fundamental certainty which a noble soul has about itself, something which is not to be sought, is not to be found, and perhaps, also, is not to be lost .-- THE NOBLE SOUL HAS REVERENCE FOR ITSELF .-- 288.

There are men who are unavoidably intellectual, let them turn and twist themselves as they will, and hold their hands before their treacherous eyes--as though the hand were not a betrayer; it always comes out at last that they have something which they hide--namely, intellect.